Chapter 614 - 395: Strange Tale Materialization

Chapter 614: Chapter 395: Strange Tale Materialization

In recent years, a brand-new urban legend has emerged in Yingzhou—

—Ghostly Footsteps.

The first officially recorded victim was a corporate drone. One night, on his way home from work, he suddenly heard footsteps behind him. He turned around, but saw no one. When he started walking again, the footsteps returned.

The man turned around again, but there was still nothing there. After a moment’s thought, he called the police and described the strange situation he was in. As someone living in Yingzhou, a place where urban legends flew thick and fast—and over fifty percent of them were real Extraordinary events—it was natural to be a little on edge.

It turned out the man’s caution was justified, but it wasn’t enough to save his life. Midway through his call with the police, he went silent. On the other end of the line, the operator heard the sharp CRACK of breaking bones, followed by the thud of a body and a phone hitting the ground.

The police immediately pulled up the street’s surveillance footage. They found the man lying dead in the middle of the road, his neck twisted grotesquely, his head rotated a full one hundred and eighty degrees.

Rewatching the footage, the police saw what had happened. The man was jogging quickly, as if fleeing from a pursuer, while holding his phone to report the incident. Then, without any warning, some kind of Mysterious Power snapped his neck out of thin air.

The police department immediately classified the case as an Extraordinary incident and reported it to the local Star Association. Soon, Investigators from the special operations team began their work.

They were shocked by what they uncovered. As it turned out, an urban legend called "Ghostly Footsteps" had already gone viral in paranormal circles two months prior.

It started with someone posting that they kept hearing footsteps behind them while walking alone at night, but every time they looked back, there was nothing there. It was very strange. Afterward, more and more people replied in agreement, saying they had experienced the same thing.

However, the entire thread read more like a fictional ghost story, so "Ghostly Footsteps" didn’t spread widely at first. People just dismissed it as a tall tale made up by some bored netizen. But everything changed when a few highly skilled artists on the sidelines took notice of the story.

They turned the urban legend into lewd art and porn comics!

—A yandere with the power of Invisibility, stalking you relentlessly, watching your every move at all times. Then, one day, you fail to evade her and she’s discovered, so she forces herself on you...

And just like that, "Ghostly Footsteps" went viral, and its popularity has lasted to this day.

Zhou Chen had seen those images while browsing an illustration website, which is how he learned more about the story.

And now, as a Mysterious Power twisted his neck, he saw the face right in front of him. Her cheeks were unnaturally flushed, and her gaze was full of affection, like an infatuated yandere. The bizarre thing was, her entire appearance could only be described as a "total mess."

Part of her hair was long and straight and black, part of it was blonde, part of it was wavy, and another part was a mix of short hair and drill-like ringlets...

She wore glasses, had an alluring beauty mark by the corner of her mouth, and was dressed in a Japanese-style school uniform, complete with a "Disciplinary Committee Member" armband. Underneath, a white shirt was tied at the hem, covering a lacy bra and revealing defined abs. Her skin had tan lines from a bikini, and there was a charming pink tattoo on her lower abdomen...

Her lower body was dressed half in a miko’s hakama and half in a Lolita skirt, apparently worn over both pantyhose and stockings. On her feet, one wore a high-heel, the other a wooden clog.

It was as if someone had added a ton of conflicting tags during AI art generation, creating an ultimate stitched-together amalgamation.

Zhou Chen instantly understood the true nature of the woman before him—she was a materialized urban legend, born from the collective imagination of the internet and brought to life by an unknown power!

In simple terms, all the different anthropomorphized versions of "Ghostly Footsteps" circulating online had been mashed together. In the process of being given physical form, they created a stitched-together horror creature, a "Chimera" or "Frankenstein’s monster" of a legend.

"Ah~ darling, we can finally be together~~"

The woman, nicknamed "Ghost Sauce," spoke with delight, her eyes full of adoration. But the next second, her tone and attitude shifted abruptly. "It’s n-not that I like you or anything! Don’t get cocky!"

’Tone it down, that’s a little much...’ Zhou Chen thought. Although his neck was broken, his life wasn’t in danger.

The urban legend creature before him was Tier Three. Its killing mechanism was "looking back"; anyone who heard its footsteps and turned around would have their neck snapped. This wasn’t just a physical attack, either—it also damaged the Soul. Fortunately, Zhou Chen’s Soul was powerful enough, and with the shared Life Force from his Bonds Ring, he was largely unharmed.

Zhou Chen blinked. The stitched-together creature shrieked as if it had seen a ghost. She never expected someone whose neck she’d broken to still be able to move!

The next second, a scorching heatwave erupted from Zhou Chen, igniting the creature’s hair and clothes.

Zhou Chen’s entire body underwent Essence Materialization, instantly healing him. He slammed a fist into the creature’s stomach, sending out a blast of air pressure.

BANG!

"Ooh!" the creature cried out strangely. Her eyes rolled back in her head as she drooled and collapsed to the ground, her body convulsing violently.

"..."

In the silence, Zhou Chen looked at his fist, then at the twitching creature on the ground. His expression was one of pure, dumbfounded shock. It took him a long moment to process what had happened.

’Hmmmm... This thing’s appearance and traits are basically all from lewd art and porn comics. There’s probably some masochism mixed in there. Makes sense, makes sense...’ After a moment of contemplation, Zhou Chen swung his Dream Light and Shadow, severing the creature’s head.

A pure Light of Spiritual bloomed. Plumes of black smoke rose from the creature’s corpse, which took a full two minutes of Purification before it completely dissipated.

"The situation is a bit tricky," Jiang Che’s voice came through his earpiece.

"Tricky? Didn’t I just take care of it easily?" Zhou Chen asked, confused.

"The creature wasn’t the problem. The problem is the reason it materialized," Jiang Che said. "’Ghostly Footsteps’ should have materialized in Yingzhou, if at all. The fact that it appeared here means one of two things: either Dupe’s forces captured the legend and are using it as an asset, or they created it themselves.

I’m personally leaning toward the latter."

"If they can create one urban legend through internet discussions, they can definitely create more using the same method. But that’s not the crucial part. A few urban legends can’t change the tide of battle..."

Jiang Che continued in a low voice, "Besides the ’Red Moon’ element, that ritual requires other components. One of them is a sacrifice called a ’Sin Beast.’ It’s a monster that doesn’t exist in our World. Whether in the Human World, the Abyss, a Restricted Area, or the Spirit Realm, no one has ever seen a Sin Beast with their own eyes. Records of them only remain in a certain ruined Restricted Area.

So, how could Dupe possibly find a non-existent monster?"

A flash of insight struck Zhou Chen. He frowned instinctively. "He can ’create’ it..."

The belief, descriptions, and creative works of countless people gave "Ghostly Footsteps" a physical form. The same method could absolutely be used to create a creature that doesn’t exist in the World!

Humans can’t create something completely beyond their own knowledge. If the "Sin Beast" had never existed, it couldn’t be created. But since a Restricted Area has records of it, and the ritual mentions it as an element, that means the "Sin Beast" must have existed at some point in the past...

"But how would Dupe and his people do it? ’Ghostly Footsteps’ only materialized because it was so popular in Yingzhou. As far as I know, there aren’t any stories about a ’Sin Beast’ in the paranormal community." Zhou Chen started running, heading down a corridor.

The ritual would require a wide, open space. The prison interior wouldn’t work, which meant the only possible location was the prison yard. And to get to the yard, he had to cross the entire prison.

Moments later, he encountered enemies blocking his path. There were mind-controlled criminals, Corrupters, Tainted Ones, Abyssal Demons, and even more materialized urban legends...

He cut them all down swiftly.

"I checked. There really is no discussion about the ’Sin Beast’ on the internet," Jiang Che said after a pause. "Perhaps they aren’t implementing their plan in the Human World."

"Don’t tell me it’s the Abyss?" Zhou Chen stabbed an oncoming Abyssal Demon with his spear, then flicked a pale flame from his fingertips. The flame shot forward, expanded rapidly, and with a BOOM, blew the several Demons behind it to pieces.

There were quite a few Abyssal Demons here. It meant Dupe’s forces had been raising them for a while!

"Perhaps..." Jiang Che didn’t dare to say for sure. She closed her eyes and began to think, connecting the various pieces of intelligence and clues.

Before Jiang Che could come up with anything, Zhou Chen had already slaughtered his way through the prison. He used Alchemy to disintegrate the final gate and emerged outside, where he saw the prison yard not far off. A large number of Ascenders were gathered there, along with a massive Ritual Array that was being set up.

"I didn’t expect you to be the first one here. I don’t know whether to praise your courage or call you blindly confident and hopelessly naive. Did you really think you could get through this unscathed just because of the Artifacts you’re carrying?"

Dupe stood in the center of the Ritual Array, a cold, vicious glint flashing in his eyes as he faced the main culprit behind his downfall.

"Kill him."

At his command, a burly, muscular giant instantly teleported in front of Zhou Chen. An Iron Fist the size of a cannonball crashed down, unleashing a shockwave out of thin air. It was like a shell exploding right in front of Zhou Chen, and his vision went black.

’So there really is a Tier Four!’

He had already prepared himself and began to draw Power through the Bonds Ring, but a familiar figure moved faster than he did.

Li Xiye appeared without warning, blocking the attack and shielding him from the dangerous aura. She threw a punch of her own, countering with a faster, more powerful fist. A heart-stopping BOOM rang out as Cyan Thunder exploded, the sound echoing mightily. The burly giant was sent flying backward even faster than he’d arrived, a spray of blood and gore in his wake.

Zhou Chen took a closer look and realized that the Li Xiye before him was not a construct of cyan lightning.

It was her real body!